My Kellback's eating behaviour

[cheekabee]

Just an update on my Keelback I bought this year as a hatchling from Ben, it was only eating neon tetras early this year, I got it on larger fish, then pinkie mice now I have it on a varied diet consisting pinkie rats and fish. I also offer it strips of chicken just as a supplement, from my observations the flesh of chicken can be quite similar to the flesh of frogs which is the natural diet of wild Keelbacks. Just wondering of your thoughts on feeding keelbacks strips of chicken, it reminds me of the appetite of woma pythons and blackheaded pythons and would this this be the first recorded keelback eating chicken.


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Oh and post any of your captive keelbacks.

 

[dottyback]

Looking good mate! Great idea incorporating small amounts of chicken in it's diet.

Ben

 

[buffcoat]

As I know nothing on these snakes, are they comparable to the US version of garter snakes?

If you aren't familiar with the garter snake, their usual diet consists of earthworms, pinkies and fish. They usually only grow to about 3' long and are usually slender bodied.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Venomous_RBB]

Aww he is adorable, as far as I know it is normal to feed them slithers of chicken, a guy I know has 3 Keelbacks and he gives them chicken as a 'every now and then' food. They love it, I am sure they would eat it full time if they could, lol.

 

[Womagaunt]

can u feed womas chicken?!

 

[Venomous_RBB]

I got told to not feed my BHP chicken, but to mix it up with Whole Rats and Whole Quail so they get the full nutrition from the animals. It should be the same for Woma's, this is just the information that I got told from an Aspidite breeder.

 

[butters]

Whole prey animals are always preferable to just muscle tissue like chicken or fish strips. As a part of a varied diet including whole prey items though it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[cheekabee]

Yeah whole prey items probably contain more nutrients and some that are essential to the keelback's diet, especially in the guts, I know that monitors absorb vitiman d from the liver of small mammals so I only use chicken as a supplement.

 

[coopercrowther]

Hey al. Im up here in cairns and am looking for advice on keelbacks. I have recently been givin mine from a breeder in brisbane and dont know much about it besides it loves cane toads. Ive been out watching wild keelbacks and they love them and their tadpoles. Question is what else should i give it besides the toads and tadpoles fish and shrimp.i read chicken and pinkies but what else

 

[cheekabee]

Thats about it, as you said you can feed them toads, tadpoles, fish, shrimp, pinkies, and as i just recently discovered you can feed them chicken, you could feed them invertebrates such as earth worms, I've heard of crickets, grass hoppers, ect. There's not too much info on them in captivity so you just have to experiment like me, I never read you could feed them chicken.

 

[Tsubakai]

Whilst they can eat cane toads and cane toad taddies and not die they are still affected by them. The work done on JCU showed that the keelbacks that fed on cane toads did have their motor skills impaired by the cane toad toxin, they didn't grow as fast as the controls and showed a definite preference for frogs over toads (this is all from memory as I don't have the original paper any more). My suggestion would be to feed other foods and steer clear of the toads as it can still impair them and there is no information on what the long term effects are, particularly in captivity.

 

[butters]

Yep. Just because they can eat cane toads and survive doesn't mean you should feed them to your snake.

For the most part I find that captive snakes will eat almost anything aside from some of the specialists. I have had difficulties getting some of the lizard specialists like Furinas onto anything else voluntarily but I have marshies, whips and green trees that will eat whatever I wave in front of them.